I've seen television programs that demonstrated how to make chips (what we call "fries" here) with two cooking steps - fry for a bit in the oil, take it out, then put it back in a few minutes later. That's also the way to make tostones, a related kind of fried food made of plantano or plantain bananas. When they're green you can make them into fries, when they're ripe you can bake them and they're sweet and very good with butter and cinnamon sugar. For tostones you fry them a couple of minutes, then each cross-sectioned piece is flattened a bit, put in salty water for a minute, drained, and then back in the oil till it's finished frying.